Late Pleistocene to recent: Human activities in the deep interior equatorial rainforest of Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo

From the onset of archaeological research in Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo) in 1939, there have been only 2 investigations within the deep interior equatorial rainforest of the island. These were at the sites of Nanga Balang and Diang Kaung, both in the upper Kapuas drainage basin in the geographical centre of Borneo. Both sites were dated to c. 3000 BP by the previous researchers. In this report, preliminary results of new excavations carried out at the rock-shelter complexes of Diang Kaung and Diang Balu are reported. AMS radiocarbon dating of 12 charcoal samples from the two sites indicates two main periods of human activity, one being 15 to 11 cal. ka, with a second spanning the recent past from 1500 to 150 BP. Taken together, these dates confirm the intermittent existence of human occupation of the deep interior equatorial rainforest of Borneo through at least 15,000 years.